NAGORNY KARABAKH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION VALID – MONITOR
RIA Novosti, Russia
July 19 2007
YEREVAN, July 19 (RIA Novosti) – The presidential election in Nagorny
Karabakh, a self-proclaimed republic in Azerbaijan, can be considered
valid now that 25% of those eligible to vote have done so, the region’s
central election commission said Thursday.
"Consequently, the threshold has been reached and the elections can
be considered valid," commission head Sergei Nasibyan said.
Five candidates, including the National Security Service chief, a
deputy foreign minister and the Communist Party leader, are running
in the elections.
Incumbent President Arkady Gukasyan, whose second term is expiring
in August, refused to run for a third term, although experts have
said that is not prohibited by the republic’s Constitution.
A candidate receiving at least 50% of the votes will be elected
president. If no one does, the two leading candidates will meet in
a second round two weeks from now.
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry condemned the election as an attempt
to cover up Armenia’s policy aimed at occupying and annexing Azeri
territories.
The ministry said the election was held in breach of Azerbaijan’s
Constitution and international law, as it disenfranchised the Azeri
community of Nagorny Karabakh.
The conflict over Nagorny Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan with a
largely Armenian population, first erupted in 1988 when it declared
independence from Azerbaijan and moved to join Armenia.
Over 30,000 people were killed on both sides between 1988 and 1994,
and over 100 died following a 1994 ceasefire.
Nagorny Karabakh remained in Armenian hands, but tensions between
Azerbaijan and Armenia have persisted, and Azerbaijan remains
determined to restore its control over the separatist region.
Anne Derse, the United States Ambassador to Azerbaijan, said the U.S.
government recognized neither the election nor the republic’s
independence.
Similar statements of non-recognition have been issued by Rene
van der Linden, the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe, the European Union, the Council of Ministers of the GUAM,
an organization of four former Soviet republics – Georgia, Ukraine,
Azerbaijan and Moldova – and Turkey’s government.